Wednesday, December 18, 2013

I am certain that for most of my readers, I am preaching to
the choir, but BDS stand for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Over 170 Palestinian
civic, governmental and NGO groups have come together to ask the rest of the world
to boycott, divest and sanction Israel.It is a very effective non-violent method of
challenging Israel’s
brutal treatment of Palestinian families, culture and livelihood. It worked in South Africa and with the support ofpeople of conscience, Israel’s Zionist government, and the average
Israeli, may be pressured into altering Israel’s suicidal path.

As I understand it, Boycott is something we can do as
individuals. Divestment has to be done by groups such as corporations, church
investments committees or unions. Sanctions are the responsibility of
governments.

As U.S. politicians
proudly proclaim that there is “no daylight” between the US and Israel, two groups of people are
reacting to the truth of that statement.First is the vast majority of people all around the globe who identify
the US government and its citizens
with the atrocities committed by the Zionist government of Israel. And why
not?We finance Israel’s
military and expansionist agenda. We ignore Israel’s
crimes and veto UN sanctions calling for Israel to abide by international
law. What little credibility the US has had in the past is melting
away faster than the ice glaciers of the North Pole. Our claim to be an “honest
broker” is a joke. Most of the world is not laughing.

But, there is another group of people watching our
relationship with Israel.
It is a smaller group. They are made up of Jews, Christians and Muslims,
generally called “people of conscience,” who simply recognize that wrong is not
right and silence is not acceptable.Their
only authority is a voice and their weapon of choice is BDS.

Omar Barghouti explains:

The BDS movement has dragged Israel and its well-financed, bullying groups
into a confrontation on a battlefield where the moral superiority of the
Palestinian quest for self-determination, justice, freedom, and equality
neutralizes and outweighs Israel’s
military power and financial prowess. It is the classic right-over-might
paradigm, with the right being recognized by an international public that is
increasingly fed up with Israel’s criminality and impunity and is realizing
that Israel’s slow, gradual genocide places a heavy moral burden on all people
of conscience to act, to act fast, and to act with unquestionable
effectiveness, political suaveness, and nuance, and above all else with
consistent, untarnished moral clarity. [1]

But, why BDS? The
simple answer is because life in Palestine
is a nightmare.

Israel’s
bloodbath in Gaza,
called Operation Cast Lead, in December ‘08
and January ‘09, killed 1400 Palestinians, most of them civilians. All evidence
showed that Israel
deliberately targeted public buildings and utilities, including schools,
hospitals and sanitation plants.

Next, Israel’s inexcusable attack on the humanitarian
flotilla brought to public attention the deplorable conditions forced on the
people of Gaza, most of them living in refugee camps having been driven out at
gun point by Israel in 1948 and then again in 1967.

We hear people say such things as“Well, what’s new. Jews and Arabs have been
fighting each other for thousands of years. Let them sort it out.”Well, “what’s new” is the imbalance of power
and our responsibility for it.

“According to Israeli statistics,
four days of Israeli violence have created many more victims on our side than
forty years of Palestinian violence against Israeli targets. Yet, every
casualty is one casualty too any”[2]

And Israel
gets away with it.The US has proven that it is not going to pressure,
criticize or even publically admit the crimes of Israel. We have had 62 years to
take a moral stand and consistently we have chosen to either look the other way
or support Israel’s
brutal threat to the life and liberty of Palestinians.

Let me be clear, I support the call to BDS Israel, but not
just a few companies or products.People
of conscience must BDS Israel, all of it, no exceptions.Someone has said, “In a democracy, if a few
are guilty, all are responsible.” No
dominant nation in history has ever given up power without being pressured to
do so. Thus, I support BDS until Israel does three things:

One - Withdraw from all occupied territory: West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan
Heights. Many groups, including Jewish organization, call for a
withdrawal, but this only addresses the injustice committed since 1967.

Two - Offer full rights under the law to its non Jewish
citizens. As it is, Palestinians live as
second class citizens within Israel.

Three - Allow the return of refugees or pay compensation to
those driven out in 1948 and 1967. Some are calling for the return of only
those who were alive and displaced in 1948, a number which is rapidly
decreasing due to age.

BDS must be total and complete.

When reading about Israel, many American
say, “I don’t like it, but….”

We need to change our stance to, “I don’t like it, therefore…”

I will not buy Sodastream, Caterpillar shoes, Ahava
Cosmetics or Hewlett-Packard ink for my computer.

I will write my church representatives who will be voting in
our national assembly or conference urging them to vote for divestment.

I will write congress people urging them to vote for sanctions
against Israel until Israel becomes
a democratic nation for all its citizens.

And having done all that, I will send a little money to JVP
and Sabeel.[3]

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Nelson Mandela is reported to have said, “The temptation is
to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the right of the people of Palestine… yet we would
be less than human if we did so.”

Let us be clear, Mandela never spoke “in muffled tones” when
it came to human rights and suffering for oppressed people all over the world.

All over the media, politicians and newscasters are jumping
on the band wagon to sing the praises of Nelson Mandela, and rightly so.He was one of the outstanding leaders of the
world during the past century. Yet, how many leaders, political and religious, tell
us the whole of his greatness. To do so would be embarrassing.

Some of his most significant sayings that are being “muffled”
are:

But we know too well that our
freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people.[1]

People of conscience cringe with pain when the thought of
what a difference it would make in the suffering of so many people if just one
major TV news anchor would emphasize this aspect of Mandela’s struggle for
peace.

I believe there are many
similarities between our struggle and that of the PLO. We live under a unique form
of colonialism in South Africa,
as well as in Israel,
and a lot flows from that.[2]

When challenged by Ted Koppel on ABC, Mandela responded,

We identify with the PLO because,
just like ourselves, they are fighting for the right of self determination.

He told an Australian news media:

We agree with the United Nations
that international disputes should be settled by peaceful means. The belligerent
attitude which is adopted by the Israeli government is to us unacceptable.

Mandela went on to say that the ANC does not consider the
PLO a terrorist group:

If one has to refer to any of the
parties as a terrorist state, one might refer to the Israeli government,
because they are the people who are slaughtering defenseless and innocent Arabs
in the occupied territories, and we don’t regard this as acceptable.[3]

Western leaders, who until 2008, called him a terrorist are
now falling all over themselves to call him a great leader. Obama puts him in
the class with Lincoln, Roosevelt, Gandhi and King. Joe Biden eulogies, “The
most remarkable man I have ever known in my entire life.”I agree. But my fear is that many of those
world leaders gathered to bury Mandela are hoping to bury his principles of
freedom from oppression along with him.

Mazin Qumsiyeh, human rights activist and well known
professor, having taught at University
of Tennessee, Duke and
Yale, writes:

In this week’s compilation from
occupied Palestine:
Today, a 14 year old child shot by Israeli sniper in the back in Jalazour
Refugee Camp. A Bethlehem
young man was shot by the Israeli apartheid soldier using live ammunition
yesterday. Another lost his life after being in a coma for 7 months from an
Israeli bullet. The apartheid state of Israel exonerated itself from the
murder of Mustafa Tamimi of Nebi Selah so today we join with the Nebi Saleh
community to protest and also to commemorate Nelson Mandela. Our friend Ashraf
from Bili’n was Mendela. We faced a barrage of rubber-coated steel bullets,
tear gas, and stun grenades. Mustafa’ younger brother Udai Tamimi was shot in
the face and is now in a Ramallah hospital.Christian communities throughout Palestine
will hold special services tomorrow… Sunday December 8 in honor of Mendela.[4]

A comment of William Slone Coffin comes to mind; “Peace will
come when those who are not victims of injustice feel as keenly about it as those
who are.”

Mandela lived in an apartheid state in “homelands” with no
power, no military, no real economy and no control over its land, labor or resources”.No surprise that he would identify with the Palestinians
who suffer every day under the oppression of Israel. He knew what it felt like to be labeled a
terrorist because he stood up for democracy and equality. His moral authority
forces us to admit that democracy and racism can never be happily married.Speaking loud and clear, Nelson Mandela said
that the world can only work from a position of truth.It is
time for our political and religious leaders to stopmuffling the tone of his voice.

Thomas
Are

December
12, 2013

[1]
President Nelson Mandela at the International Day of Solidarity with the
Palestinian People. December 4, 1997, Pretoria.

[2] Article
in JTA, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the Global Jewish News Source, South
African and the U.S.
Leaders Dismayed over Mandela’s Remarks. March 2, 1990.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

I believe the doctor was sincere.Last month, Nancy Snyderman interviewed one
of the sixty doctors and nurses who traveled from Israel
to the Philippines
to help treat typhoon victims. As the sick and injured came in with dehydration,
respiratory illnesses, diarrhea, and fever, she asked a doctor why he would do
such a thing.

Snyderman, Chief Medical Editor on the Brian Williams news
hour, said that she was in “Awe” of Israel’s medics. The doctor said, “You give what you
can and then you go.” Williams added, “They did it in Haiti and now they are in the Philippines.”[1]

As he spoke, I thought to myself; that dedicated doctor did
not have to travel half way around the world to help his injured and sick brothers.Just ten miles away in Israeli occupied Palestine, thousands of
men, women and children desperately need medical care. But, there are no TV
programs showing Israeli doctors and nurses aiding them because the “typhoon”
that has hit the West Bank and Gaza is of Israel’s
making.It amazes me that Israel gets a
pat on the back for helping victims of nature and almost total silence on the
pain and misery caused by Israel right next door.

While Israel
soaked up the admiration and applause for its humanitarian work in the Philippines, a 14 year old girl died in an
ambulance detained at an Israeli checkpoint while
trying to get to a hospital in Bethlehem.
She was a Palestinian, therefore not included in the “sense of helping your
brothers whoever they are.”[2]

Again, I think the doctor was sincere.He represents the best of his Jewish faith
asspelled out by the Hebrew prophets. I
can only imagine what was going through his mind and heart, perhaps; “Hear the
word of the Lord … wash yourselves; make yourself clean; remove the evil of
your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek
justice; correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. (Isaiah
1:16-17). Or even a simple, “For the Lord is a God of justice.(Isaiah 30:18).

There are a few more texts that could easily have influenced
the doctor and his team:

Is this not the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the
oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it notto share your bread with the hungry, and
bring the homeless poor into your house;

… ? (Isaiah 58:6-7).Do justice and righteousness, and
deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, And do no wrong
to the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this
place. (Jeremiah 22:3).For I the Lord love justice, I hate
robbery and wrong . (Isaiah 61:8). The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed…
He does not forget the cry of the afflicted. (Psalm 9:9, 12).For he delivers the needy when he
calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the
needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems
their life; and precious is their blood in his sight. (Psalm 72: 12-14)Give justice to the weak and the
fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the
weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. (Psalm 82:3-4).

I believe the medical team flying to the Philippines
knew these texts well. At least they were putting them into practice.

On the other hand, the state claiming their loyalty shows little
allegiance to their own Jewish scriptures. From the beginning, Israel has been
addicted to violence:

On April 9, 1948, in the struggle to rid the land of Arabs, the Stern Gang, headed by Yitzhak
Shamir, and the Irgun, headed by Menacham Begin, both future Prime Ministers of
Israel, conducted the massacre of an Arab village called Deir Yassin. Arabs say
250 were killed. Israel
claims it was only 100. The commander of
the Haganah, ZviAnkori, described what
happened:

These acts of violence were designed to frighten Arabs into
fleeing for their lives. Begin himself boasted:

Out of our evil, came good. This
Arab propaganda spread a legend of terror among Arabs who were seized with
panic at the mention of Irgun soldiers… Panic overwhelmed the Arabs of Eretz Israel. Kolonia
villege was evacuated overnight… Beth-Isla was also evacuated.[4]

Sixty-five years later, little has changed. In spite of
anything the Bible has to say, Israel’s
regime has been a history of bloodshed and violence, not a violence of necessity,
but a violence of aggression.

An Israeli chief rabbi of the Shas Party proclaims, “It is forbidden
to be merciful to Arabs.” Not to be out-Zioned, Eli Yishai, Israel’s internal
minister proclaimed, “You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They
are evil and damnable”[5]
Arnon Sofer, the so called Arab counter, spelled out the implications of the
withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, “When 2.5 million
people live in closed off Gaza,
it’s going to be a human catastrophe… The pressure at the border will be awful.
So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All
day, every day … If we don’t kill, we will cease to exist.”[6]

It is amazing. Netanyahu, in a letter to the president of
the Philippines, wrote “On behalf
of the government and people of Israel,
I extend heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives …
I hope Israel’s
assistance will help alleviate the suffering.”This is the same Netanyahu who bombarded Gaza in December and January '08 and ’09,
killing more than 1400 unarmed men, women and children and destroying thousands
of public buildings and private homes. This same Netanyahu sent night raiders
to storm a humanitarian ship bringing medicine and supplies to his victims of Gaza, killing nine
unarmed volunteers in international waters.

Not only has Netanyahu betrayed these sixty doctors and nurses,
he has betrayed Judaism and put Jews around the world in a dilemma.

I remember Marc Ellis saying something like:“In the early fourth century, you Christians
were faced with a choice.You could uphold
the morality and compassion of your faith or you could choose the power and
privilege of the state.” He went on to say, “You made the wrong choice and you
haven’t gotten over it yet.”Then fighting
tears, he went of to say, “We Jews are exactly in the same spot today. We can
choose the morals and compassion of our faith, or we can choose the power and privilege
offered by the state.We are also making
the wrong choice.”

Thomas L. Are

I preached for forty three years in the Presbyterian Church before retiring. If anyone would ever refer to me as a Liberation Theologian, I would be pleased. I started blogging several years ago to express my political and religious concern for justice, especially justice for the Palestinians.